It is known that the most recent developments in the field of computers have produced microprocessors which operate at ever higher clock frequencies. These processors must of course be interfaced with non-volatile memories, such as EPROM and FLASH memories. However, the increase in the clock frequency of processors has not been accompanied by a correlated increase in the operating frequency of non-volatile memories, which currently operate at much lower frequencies, at most 20 MHz.
Accordingly, the performance of processors on the motherboard of computers which must interface with the non-volatile memories via a bus depends on the operating frequency of the non-volatile memories and therefore such performance is decreased. Likewise, hard disk drives contain non-volatile memories which, as mentioned, have an operating speed which also decreases performance of the hard disk drives.
Accordingly, the trend is to obtain improved performance from memories via particular architectural 5 techniques which have the drawback that they require additional silicon areas which increases the costs of the system. Currently, a good technique is the so-called burst method, which however requires an additional silicon area, leading to a cost increase.